UFL cancels final two weeks of regular season; Destroyers host title game Friday

A few days ago, United Football League players hoping to make an impression on NFL teams simply thought they were running out of season.

Monday, they learned that it's the UFL season that has run out on them.

The three-year-old drama that is UFL operations took yet another twist when the league announced it will cancel the final two weeks of the regular season and wrap things up Friday at 8 p.m. with a championship game pitting the Las Vegas Locomotives (3-1) against the Virginia Destroyers (3-1) at the Sportsplex. Also on Friday, Sacramento (1-3) will visit Omaha (1-3) in a "consolation" game.

"This strategy of moving straight to the championship game is the best means by which to take the UFL forward," UFL founder and Las Vegas owner Bill Hambrecht said in a carefully-worded release.

The move will certainly eliminate some costs. But according to Destroyers cornerback Kyle Whitehurst, some of the UFL's savings will come at the players' expense.

Whitehurst said he originally signed a $40,000 contract, a deal that was trimmed to $30,000 when the league shortened its schedule from eight to six games. The loss of two more games effectively wipes out a third of Whitehurst's salary.

"Look, we all love to play," said Whitehurst, a Bethel High graduate. "But a lot of us have families, obligations. They come in and tell us this, that's $10,000 more out of our pockets."

Furthermore, Whitehurst said the players have yet to be told about payment for the championship game.

"I know some guys that played in the championship game last year, and they didn't see their money for months," Whitehurst said. "So who knows? With the history of this league, we might not see any of that money at all."

Despite these concerns, focus on the field wasn't an issue at Monday's practice, a workout Destroyers coach Marty Schottenheimer called the team's best of the season.

"We usually run five or 10 minutes over," Schottenheimer said. "Today we ended eight minutes early. The focus was that sharp."

Whitehurst said the players vented their issues among themselves, and pledged understanding if any of them no longer wanted to continue.

"People have bills to pay. So our stand was, if anyone made a decision not to play, no one will hold it against you," Whitehurst said. "But at this point, we all want to play. We have a goal of getting this championship, and we're going to see it through.

"We're going to live up to our word. We'll see if the league lives up to theirs."

Whatever financial issues ail the UFL, Virginia's John Castleberry insists most of them don't center around the Virginia franchise. In fact, the Destroyers vice president of sales and marketing said Virginia is being touted as a blueprint franchise as the league looks to expand to a minimum of six teams for the 2012 season.

"In the local Virginia market we're in sound financial shape," Castleberry said. "We pay our bills. So (the league) wants to take what Virginia has done and use it as the model for other cities."

Castleberry said the Destroyers have made ends meet by eliminating extraneous costs, like the $9,000 that was originally budgeted for post-game fireworks, and instead focusing mostly on Schottenheimer and the football.

"We also scaled back on some of the halftime entertainment," Castleberry said. "I think we know what football fans really want -- football. That needs to be the main selling point."

Castleberry acknowledged that Monday's news will make his job tougher to attract businesses and sponsors. But both he and Schottenheimer expressed confidence that the UFL's plan going forward is sound in the long term.

"There have been a lot of doubters before -- and a lot of that is on us -- but the Destroyers have pretty much done what we said we were going to do and that's put a quality product on the field," said Castleberry, who added that ticket sales were still brisk on Monday. "I really believe we're going to regroup and come back stronger."